Rothamsted Research is one of the BBSRC family of independent Institutes and has a 160 year history in international agri-environment research. About 600 people work at Rothamsted. This document is submitted to the Science and Technology Select Committee in response to its request for evidence on how Research Council Institutes contribute to maintaining the UK research and skills base. This document can be considered as a case study that expands on the document submitted to the Committee by BBSRC Institute Directors who comprise the Biosciences Network.

SUMMARY

  With special emphasis on Rothamsted, this submission notes the mission-driven, programme-focused nature of institute research whose strategy is long term and well defined in pursuit of goals that are linked to users' needs in a variety of sectors. Rothamsted has a flexible organisation that makes the very best of multi-disciplinarity as well as specialised facilities which are valuable to many different collaborators in all sectors and for training, especially PhD students. Examples are given of how the Institute structure fulfils a vital role in the UK research landscape.

  1.  Rothamsted Research typifies Research Council Institutes (RCI) in that it has a clearly enunciated strategy driven by a mission with specific sectors and beneficiaries in mind. Rothamsted's work focuses on research that provides innovative policies, products and practices to enhance the economic, environmental and societal value of agricultural land. This mission is addressed by taking a long term, strategic approach that draws on multidisciplinary science and unique resources.

  2.  Across the Institute there is a programme-based culture, with each programme integrating a portfolio of basic, strategic and applied research projects towards the delivery of sub-components of the Institute's overall objectives and overarching mission. Thus, there is long-lived emphasis on achieving certain key goals of economic and societal relevance. This contrasts with, but is complementary to, university-based research which typically, is not so mission driven and where the expertise base reflects a need to respond to the demands of fashion in student teaching provision. Much university-research responsive to individual researchers' interests, is opportunistic and is rarely able to address long-term research objectives. In the UK, the Rothamsted role and remit is unique and the collective scientific capability and facilities are specifically put in place to serve a strategic UK research requirement in the land-based sector.

  3.  In particular, Rothamsted's mission emphasises outcomes for end-users. Institutes such as Rothamsted have actively developed a deep understanding of the needs of research users and they provide a continuum between basic research and its application. Rothamsted works closely with stakeholder groups through a dedicated team, including its members' association (the Rothamsted Research Association). This association facilitates communication and knowledge transfer between scientists and those involved in agricultural, environmental and other land management businesses. One example of the benefit that can be derived from this approach is the LINK project "Providing a scientific basis for the avoidance of fungicide resistance in plant pathogens" which developed innovative assays capable of detecting specific, low frequency mutations in fungal populations. Project outputs guided company policy on the use and marketing of their products, impacted on the disease control strategies of farmers and influenced Pesticide Safety Directorate Policy. Rothamsted science has been used to inform a wide variety of government and European policy makers. The Farm-Scale Trials of GM crops were carried out by a consortium of research institutes that included Rothamsted Research. These trials were vital in informing UK and EU policy on GM crops.

  4.  Similarly, Rothamsted Research has made a major contribution to improving national fertiliser recommendations over the last 30 years and has contributed to the development of national policies on nitrates in the environment. As a consequence of these studies surplus N applied to wheat crops is now less than a third of what it was 20 years ago and leaching in nitrate vulnerable zones has been reduced by 20%. Given the extended time periods, large scale and experience required for both the GM and nitrogen projects it is clear that Institutes are ideally suited to make these sorts of critical scientific contribution to issues of major economic and societal consequence.

  5.  Rothamsted is sited on a 480ha estate, including woodland and farmland that represent important experimental resources. These have been used to build up long term datasets on crop performance, soil processes and insect diversity and abundance that are internationally unique. These datasets are vital to our understanding of the impacts of pollution and climate change on our managed and natural ecosystems. Rothamsted also holds the National Willows Collection, the repository for willow germplasm, which is the source of genetic variation for breeding new disease resistant, high-yielding willow clones for bioenergy production. Other unique national facilities at Rothamsted include the UK Centre for Plant and Microbial Metabolomics, the Rothamsted Centre for BioImaging and the Rothamsted Radar Entomology Unit.

  6.  Genuine multi-disciplinarity is a strong feature of institute science and is particularly important at Rothamsted where there is an emphasis on ensuring a coherent view across different levels of biological organisation from genetics, biochemistry, cell biology and soil processes, integrated through the whole organism, to investigations at the level of ecosystems and landscapes For example, at Rothamsted, links between ecology and mathematics are strong and have led to the development of spatial analysis techniques that quantify the distribution patterns of pests or species of conservation interest.

  7.  Institutes such a Rothamsted offer an excellent training environment for PhD students who also provide one route through which strong linkages with academia are maintained. At Rothamsted, and other institutes, training opportunities exist in areas that are not easily provided in a university environment. This includes the prospect of undertaking specialist field-based projects or projects requiring access to unique facilities or data sets. For this reason, Rothamsted hosts a vibrant post-graduate student community.

  This short overview of Rothamsted Research, including the context in which the Institute operates has provided just a few examples of the role the Institute plays within the UK science base and the strategic contribution it makes. We have not covered aspects of the relationships with the sponsoring body (BBSRC), government departments such as DFID and Defra or the commercial sector. All these issues are important but are generic to other BBSRC institutes. In conclusion, we point the Committee in the direction of the Strategic Plan (2005-10) for Rothamsted Research[12] and "Science and Innovation in BBSRC-sponsored Institutes: the Next Ten Years".[13]

June 2006

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